New bill would require ISPs to retain traffic logs for up to two years

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A bill that was introduced last week by two Texas Republicans would require all ISPs and anyone providing Internet access otherwise (that’s you and me, reader, if you have a Wi-Fi router) to keep logs of activity for up to two years. This bill aims to seek out those sick individuals who are trafficking child porn. The Internet SAFETY (Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth Act) Act, introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith and Sen. John Cornyn, threw out some numbers that are quite startling.

“Of the nearly 600,000 images of graphic child pornography found online and reported to law enforcement officials, only 2,100 of these children have been identified and rescued,” Rep. Smith said in a statement. “Federal, state and local law enforcement officials have reached a digital dead end in their battle against the online sexual exploitation of children.”

The U.S. Internet Service Provider Association’s (USISPA) executive director, Kate Dean, seems a bit weary of the bill as it’s written and had this to say about it.

“Congress will need to examine many tough issues when legislating a mandatory data retention scheme. Among other considerations, Congress will need to decide which providers and what information is covered, reconcile how such a requirement will comport with today’s and tomorrow’s technologies, and determine the effect on consumers, their privacy and their online security, not to mention the financial impact on companies in this uncertain economy.”

If this bill were to pass, people who are found guilty of hosting servers that have child porn would face up to 10 years in jail, but those who are bank rolling the operation would get up to 20 years.